


Stray Cats

by kitausu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Awkward Flirting, Cats, Drabble, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Neighbors, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 23:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11816448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausu/pseuds/kitausu
Summary: Lance is really enamored with the cute guy who keeps coming into his pet store and buying WAY too much cat food.or, Shiro moves into a new apartment and sees how many strays there are in the parking lot and just HAS to feed them.





	Stray Cats

**Author's Note:**

> This is just fluffy self indulgent fluff nonsense but I hope you enjoy it!

Lance blinked. When he had turned to not so discreetly text Hunk with his back to the counter, there had definitely not been a mountain of dry cat food bags piled high in front of his register along with an assortment of canned food and probably 20 cheap metal food bowls.

“Uhm…”

Attempting to lean around the Everest of cat food currently blocking his view, Lance stood on tip toes before nearly unbalancing himself and sending the food almost toppling onto the customer currently obscured behind it.

“Hi, hello! Sorry! I…um…how much…is all this?”

It was a man’s voice. More specifically, it was a young man’s voice, probably someone around Lance’s age. Lance wasn’t really sure why that tidbit of information surprised him. He guessed it was probably due to the fact that _usually_ the people who bought so much cat food in bulk were around 100 years old and 5’1” at most. Well… _usually_ no one bought _this_ much cat food. Not even old Mr. Tubbins who came in once a week with his obscenely fat beagle and complaining about his angina.

“Are you buying all of this…sir?”

Lance grimaced, glad that the customer couldn’t see his confused look as he considered how exactly to tackle the mess in front of him.

“Yes! Hello! I wasn’t sure if I was talking to myself or if someone was there! I need this because…I have a lot of cats?”

Lance was pretty sure he did _not_ want to know why that was a question. Did the man not know if he had a lot of cats? Maybe he had two cats and didn’t know what to feed them so he was being precautious? Maybe he was one of those doomsday preppers…with the way the world was going right now, Lance wasn’t sure it was necessarily a bad thing to buy cat food in bulk.

_Maybe he should buy Blue’s food in bulk…_

It ended up taking about 20 minutes to ring everything up and unearth the man standing behind the stack of food. He looked familiar, but in a vague way that really stupidly hot people always looked familiar to Lance because his brain wanted to trick him into talking to them and getting their number confidently…probably (well, probably not).

The man was built like a tank, but a graceful tank with a shock of white hair hanging over his eyes and a relieved smile on his lips as he surveyed the now sacked and wrapped food.

“I’ll probably have to make a few trips for all this.”

He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, his cheeks tinged a truly adorable pink that had Lance’s own cheeks flushing in response.

“I can…I can help you?”

Lance normally didn’t offer to help customers, largely because he was usually the only worker in the store and it was against store policy in the first place, but the guy looked so earnestly delighted and even though he probably could have bench pressed Lance’s entire bodyweight without breaking a sweat, he accepted the help with a grateful nod.

It ended up taking them both 2 trips anyway. Lance could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck and dampening the small of his back where his shirt pressed close to his skin from the summer heat.

When they finally got everything loaded up, the guy smiled widely and clapped Lance on the shoulder gratefully. Lance definitely did not swoon.

Okay, he did. Sue him.

“Seriously, thanks man! That would have taken forever just on my own. Um…do you take tips or…?”

He trailed off uncertainly and Lance only barely bite back the request for a kiss.

“Nah, man. It’s my job!”

Lance smiled a little self-consciously because yeah…working at a pet store and painting in his spare time and trying to sell his prints on the internet with only barely any luck…yup…this was his job.

But the guy apparently didn’t notice because he just smiled even wider and thanked Lance again.

“I’ll be seeing you around!”

Lance really doubted it. The guy had enough food to feed an army of cats. He probably wouldn’t be back at the store for months.

Which, admittedly, and despite the way Lance had nearly embarrassed himself what felt like 20 times in front of the guy, was a bit of a shame. Lance loved to look, even when he knew he couldn’t touch.

 

Except, it was barely 2 weeks later and gorgeous buff man was back, scouring the aisles with a look of determination on his face as he compared, yet again, gigantic bags of grain free cat food like his life depended on it.

“I can’t believe you’re back already.”

The guy jumped, only barely catching the bags in his arms. Lance definitely didn’t check out how his muscles bulged in the action or how dexterous that prosthetic was. He certainly did not think about what it would be like for the guy to hold Lance up and—

“Did they not like the food?”

Hotty McHot Butt frowned before understanding dawned.

“No! No, they liked it, it’s just all gone. I think I may need some more bowls, too….”

The guy cast an eye down the aisle, where the cat food bowls were stacked in a pretty pyramid that had taken Lance an entire morning of boredom to create.

As the words registered, Lance could just blink in shock. They ate _all_ of it? _All. Of. It?_

“If…you don’t mind me asking…how many cats are there?”

The man tilted his head as if considering the question, _as if he didn’t know._

“I would have to say around 30, but there is no way to be sure.”

This guy actually had 30 cats. _Maybe._

“Maybe more.”

_Maybe. More._

At this point, the only thing to do was paste on that customer service smile and mourn the loss of what could have been as he helped the guy carry out 3 gigantic bags of cat food and 10 new bowls to his car. Lance wasn’t about to get involved with a guy that had _maybe more_ than 30 cats.

After it was all done, and Lance had properly sweat through his apron, the guy offered his hand with another one of those genuinely bright and appreciative smiles.

“My names Shiro, by the way!”

Lance took the hand, still appreciating how lovely and calloused it was, despite his resolution to stay far far away. _Probably from lifting weights_ a soft and traitorous voice whispered in the back of his mind.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Lance.”

He gestured needlessly at the badge on his chest, then instantly regretted it as Shiro turned and studiously looked over the kitten sticker Lance had jokingly placed over his name so it read “Call me Kitten”.

The polite smile on Shiro’s face suddenly flipped into something lance could almost call predatory, but then it was gone and he was smiling again and thanking Lance and driving away.

_Weird._

 

When Lance got home that night, practically dead on his feet after 10 hours, he finally noticed them.

The parking lot outside of Lance’s apartment was full, and he meant _full,_ of very familiar looking metal cat bowls, each surrounded by 2-3 cats munching happily away and meowing contently.

“What the fuck?”

The cats in the parking lot didn’t seem to hear, but a particularly familiar and incredibly loud yowl caught his attention instead. Blue was peering down at him imperiously from the window. Except, the window was certainly not in Lance’s apartment, and the man who appeared in the window and picked up _Lance’s_ cat was certainly not him.

“What the _fuck_?”

 

Shiro startled as he heard frantic banging at his front door, nearly dropping the poor lost cat in his arms. He knew she must belong to someone around here, her coat was shiny and well cared for and she wore a bell collar around her neck with the name _Blue_ printed on the tag in cursive laser writing.

As far as Shiro knew, no one around here even knew where he lived. He had just started a job and was virtually friendless in the city, all his other friends still in New York, hours away. Which was why even a normal knocking would have thrown Shiro for a loop, let alone whatever was happening outside of his door right now.

He opened the door cautiously, only to throw it wide in confusion as the really cute pet food store worker, Lance, stood at his doorway. He looked flushed and angry at first, but then confusion, and finally understanding all filtered across his face in quick succession until he just burst out into helpless laughter.

“You don’t have 30 cats, do you?”

Shiro looked around the apartment, as if to see 30 cats suddenly appearing everywhere. But, there was just Black curled up in a huge mound on the couch, completely ignoring the ruckus going on around her.

“Um…no? I feed…I just moved here and I was feeding the strays?”

He blushed, suddenly realizing how he must have looked and sounded to the guy at the store and seeing how easily he could have drawn such a conclusion. It still didn’t explain why he was standing there in his doorway though, or why Blue was suddenly so frantically squirming in his arms.

Lance reached out instinctively and Blue launched herself from Shiro’s arms into his, where she settled and purred and butt her head up against Lance’s chin.

“You stole my cat.”

Lance smiled as he spoke the accusation, little helpless giggles still escaping him as he scratched fondly between Blue’s ears.

“Oh.”

Lance tilted his head to the side a little, considering Shiro.

“You’re a big softy, aren’t you?”

Flushing, Shiro ducked his head, looking at Black, who had deigned to move closer and inspect Lance now. She looked up at him, her eyes nearly black with curiosity as she pressed her massive body up against Shiro’s leg.

He didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he picked Black up just for something to do, hefting her up onto his shoulders where she moved to drape herself around his neck in her customary position.

The silence stretched, but it never got awkward. Shiro continued to blush, but he finally managed to look Lance in the eye and was relieved to see he was still smiling. After several long minutes, Lance finally nodded to himself as if he had decided something.

He darted forward and pressed a kiss to Shiro’s stubbly cheek, careful of the two cats between them.

“Thanks for rescuing Blue for me.”

And then he was gone, leaving Shiro feeling even more dumbfounded before, and Black purring proudly as if she had orchestrated the whole thing.

 

Lance absolutely, positively, could not believe he had done that. He had just gone up and _kissed_ Shiro, a virtual stranger, on the cheek. What had possessed him to do that? Well, other than how handsome and precious he looked standing there with that giant Maine Coon cat draped around him like she weighed nothing at all.

He glared at Blue, the traitor that she was. On the rare times that she left the apartment, she always steered clear of his neighbors and never got into trouble. He wanted to say he couldn’t understand what had attracted her to Shiro like that, but they both knew that wasn’t true.

With tea in hand, Lance beat himself up all night. He tormented himself with the idea that now Shiro would have to drive out of his way to some other pet food store and it would be so awkward because they lived so close together and why did he always have to ruin a good thing.

That night he had a nightmare that his boss had fired him on grounds of being an awkward idiot who kissed customers on the cheek for no good reason and he had to sell food at a big store like PetCo and they wouldn’t work around his art schedule at all.

Lance pouted when he saw the distinct bags of sleeplessness under his eyes the next morning. He would have to use a more intensive repair mask tonight just to get his skin back on track.

With that on his mind and that fact that he was so concerned with how he was going to get out to his car without running into Shiro, he almost didn’t notice the note taped to his door when he went to lock it.

It was written in handwriting unfamiliar to Lance, but when he read it, he couldn’t help but smile even as his cheeks flushed crimson.

_Would love to show you what kind of a softie I really am, and maybe some other sides, too. Dinner? – Shiro_

Lance ran back inside and quickly scribbled his reply on the other side so he could tape it to Shiro’s door on his way to work.

_Pick me up at 8_ _❤_

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Stray Cats](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12247626) by [thoughtsappear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsappear/pseuds/thoughtsappear)




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